SaaS Marketing Bites from Powered By Search

The 2 fold secret of SaaS headlines

Spotted this on a SaaS homepage headline recently: "Supercharged software that delivers results"   If this sounds confusing to you, it's because it is.    "Hyperliquid water. That gets you wet"    Great! Now why should I buy it?    Here's the 2 part secret to writing great headlines for SaaS landing pages:    Be opinionated. Be specific.   1. Be opinionated   So much of B2B SaaS is vanilla. There are so many exciting flavors out there but we so frequently choose the o...

Why SaaS marketing agencies have such low LTV

A lot of agencies view their clients as a problem. "They ask so many questions" "Why do they always want a call?" "Why do I need to build a business case" Jeez. With a mindset like that is it any wonder that the average LTV is ~ 3 months? Many of our clients have been with us for 3 years.  No, you read that right: 3 years. Not 3 months.  What do they see with PBS that they don't with other agencies?  I believe there are three components that matter:  1. We have a differentiated ...

How to improve executive communication about your marketing work

As a marketing leader, a large part of your ability to get the job done is in proving that you're delivering value already  But it's also an area of marketing leadership that many get wrong  Are these 3 communication errors killing your ability to prove the value of your work? 1. Stating an observation without impact, importance, or insight 2. Using passive vs active voice 3. Giving inputs more airtime than outputs 🚩 Stating an observation without impact, importance, or insight I...

2 ways Cognism broke landing page best practices – and why it works

Landing page best practices? Useful. But not always the best     This page by Cognism is almost perfect And it breaks a lot of the best practices that you'll find in an article about making B2B SaaS landing pages ✨ Best practice 1: Keep your landing page copy short Cognism's response: here's a wall of text Their homepage hero currently comes in at 116 words. Compare that to ZoomInfo which comes in at 33 words The best practice assumes the reader doesn't have time to make a choic...

How to make the most of lifecycle in SaaS

Most B2B SaaS companies spend too much time on new customer acquisition and too little time on expansion, retention, and referral. The PE-backed companies we work with get this playbook. Here's what we do: 1. Measure these 4 areas for customers - NPS – it's a leading indicator of how much people like what you do and we think it's linked to churn (high NPS is correlated with low churn) - Products subscribed – how embedded is the platform you're selling in the client's business. If...

How AI unlocks hidden productivity gains in B2B SaaS

Accompanying blogpost: More than a robot copywriter: how AI unlocks hidden productivity gains in B2B SaaS Most SaaS marketers’ opinions on the use of AI in marketing range from maximalists, who believe it will change everything and replace all marketing jobs, to AI skeptics, who believe it lacks soul and won’t disrupt any jobs. We see AI slightly differently and instead believe that AI can assist humans and help them become more effective marketers. So instead of replacing humans...

How to avoid hiring a bad SaaS marketing agency

Accompanying blogpost: 12 Best SaaS Marketing Agencies (And an Evaluation Criteria) Choosing a B2B SaaS marketing agency is tricky because, on the surface, they all seem similar. So when you Google “best SaaS marketing agencies” and see a list of 20 or 30 different options, how do you distinguish a world-class agency from a mediocre one? Unfortunately, most clients don’t figure out the answer to this question until after hiring an agency and wasting thousands of dollars – not to ...

The end (of Q1) is nigh

Only a handful of SaaS marketing leaders I spoke to in Q1 expected that they'd even be close to their pipeline goals And almost certainly, CMOs, VPs, Directors, Heads of, will be asked by the higher-ups what happened The answers will be simple: Whether it's the relentless cutting of teams and budgets, deals taking longer to move through pipeline or a decrease in demand across the market It has been... unpleasant I've been reflecting on my own performance this quarter and I'm OK...

[Replay] How to Diagnose a Sudden Drop in Leads in B2B SaaS

July 2021 was one of the worst months in recent memory for B2B SaaS marketers. Almost everyone in my network was sharing horror stories about sudden drops in leads. In this episode, I’ll walk through the same 5 common reasons for seeing sudden drops in conversions, and expand on each of them in more detail. Accompanying blogpost: How to Diagnose a Sudden Drop in Leads in B2B SaaS === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by ...

How to ask better customer research questions

We here at Powered By Search often get many messages asking what are some of the best questions to ask during a customer interview. So in this episode, we'll be breaking down some of our favorite questions and best practices you should keep in mind when conducting such interviews.  Some of the topics we touch on in today's episode include: Word-for-word questions you can use for your next customer interview Body language and expressions to avoid during the interview What to do w...

The “Boomerang Method” Remarketing Strategy for SaaS

Accompanying blogpost: The “Boomerang Method” Remarketing Strategy for SaaS The vast majority of B2B remarketing strategy uses “one-size-fits-all” messaging. But as we’ve seen, there are more efficient remarketing strategies for SaaS. The best remarketing strategies for SaaS, segment audiences based on the specific actions they take on site, and then present them with content that matches their intent. From there, by expanding your retargeting strategy beyond just the trial or de...

[Replay] How to ask better customer research questions

We here at Powered By Search often get many messages asking what are some of the best questions to ask during a customer interview. So in this episode, we'll be breaking down some of our favorite questions and best practices you should keep in mind when conducting such interviews.  Some of the topics we touch on in today's episode include: Word-for-word questions you can use for your next customer interview Body language and expressions to avoid during the interview What to do w...

The 3×10 Method: How to Improve Marketing ROI 89% Without Spending More

Accompanying blogpost: The 3×10 Method: How to Improve Marketing ROI 89% Without Spending More Most B2B SaaS marketers are dealing with companies where the economic outlook is uncertain and they are being asked to achieve the same pipeline goals or improve marketing ROI but with less budget. It’s only natural that companies are trying to outweather economic turmoil by reducing costs and, as we discussed in previous articles, marketing is one of the first expenses to be cut. But i...

Why your competitors customers are your next opportunity

There are huge revenue opportunities right now in going after your competitors customers. Here's how you can make the most of that === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search CEO Dev Basu @devbasu on Twitter for more updates and marketing insights.  If you enjoyed this episode, you can do the following things right away:  1 Claim your Free SaaS ...

2 retention plays that smart marketers can make right now

Retention is one of the best growth levers in the next 12 months The market is slowing and we're likely going to see an increase in CAC and a decrease in QPC (quality pipeline contribution) That means that everything is going to feel more expensive for growth and marketing teams But every cloud has a silver lining: you still have the LTV growth lever If you can retain customers for longer, you're able to invest more to acquire new customers Even in a good year, that's great ne...

How to rethink your pricing and packaging ready for 2023

Masterclass: How to build an antifragile marketing org for 2023 MARC THOMAS on LinkedIn Get help with your pricing and packaging strategy for 2023 Pricing and packaging are huge value drivers in a SaaS business and right now, you could be missing out on a huge amount of value   Many SaaS companies will set prices and then forget about them – after all, there are so many more obvious levers to pull to grow a company   But given the challenges that 2023 will likely throw at all of us, is i...

6 things you should do to adapt to tough market conditions

Your 2023 marketing strategy probably won't work It's probably perfect based on what happened in 2022 You're doing all the right things You've done the math and worked out that the budget balances And then *CRUSH* Recession's coming and your CFO tells you your budget's being cut Now your growth goals don't look so realistic  Here's 6 things you should be doing right now:  1. Consolidating marketing technology spend into better products that go further for you – you're likely...

Why you should be updating pain point messaging regularly

Resources mentioned in this episode:  SaaS Scalability Self Assessment - use this to work out where the weaknesses in your strategy are Marc's teardown of Pendo's amazing messaging Pendo.io Pendo's Ads on LinkedIn === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search CEO Dev Basu @devbasu on Twitter for more updates and marketing insights.  If you enjoy...

[Replay] How to improve SEO performance without waiting for months

Accompanying blogpost: The Scorecard Approach: How to improve SEO performance without waiting for months How do you improve SEO performance when there are so many factors that can make a big difference to how effective it is? Because the answer to this question isn’t always clear, companies spend a lot of time, and huge amounts of money each year, to improve and optimize their SEO. Unfortunately, when a lot of companies get started on their SEO, they spend far too much time focusi...

[Replay] The Key to Understanding Your B2B SaaS Marketing Metrics

Many B2B SaaS companies tend to analyze their metrics in a vacuum. They examine that KPIs independently of each other. Unable to see the forest beyond the trees. But whether you're measuring your cost per click or organic search rankings, your metrics are connected in ways that influence one another. And that's why it's best to analyze them based on the context of the relationships that they have.  Doing so gives you a more accurate picture of how effective your marketing really is...

[Replay] How to use templates to get SaaS trials and demos

Accompanying blogpost: Precursor marketing — How to use templates to get SaaS trials and demos When you’re trying to solve a problem, it can be difficult to know where to start, and it’s very easy to feel overwhelmed. This is the same whether you’re trying to solve it yourself, or trying to use a tool to solve it for you. This is why templates can be so useful, as they give you somewhere to start and is why so many SaaS companies offer templates as part of their SaaS product. Zapi...

We're writing a book: An update about SaaS marketing bites

[Replay] How to improve SEO performance without waiting for months

Accompanying blogpost: The Scorecard Approach: How to improve SEO performance without waiting for months How do you improve SEO performance when there are so many factors that can make a big difference to how effective it is? Because the answer to this question isn’t always clear, companies spend a lot of time, and huge amounts of money each year, to improve and optimize their SEO. Unfortunately, when a lot of companies get started on their SEO, they spend far too much time focusi...

Self-reported attribution doesn’t work. You need an attribution narrative instead

Accompanying blogpost: Self-reported attribution doesn’t work. You need an attribution narrative instead. === Many SaaS companies struggle with attributing the results they get to the marketing investments they make. A common scenario is that they’re paying a lot for qualified leads on a platform like LinkedIn Ads but they’re not really sure how important that investment is for their acquisition of new customers. When this happens, they’ll do one of two things: Get frustrated lo...

3 fundamental pieces to SaaS growth

=== SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search CEO Dev Basu @devbasu on Twitter for more updates and marketing insights.  If you enjoyed this episode, you can do the following things right away:  1 Claim your Free SaaS Scale Session. If you’d like to work with us to turn your website into your best demo and trial acquisition platform, claim your FREE SaaS S...

[Replay] Why Your B2B LinkedIn Ads for SaaS Aren’t Working and What to Do About It

In our work with B2B SaaS clients, we find that about 50% of the time LinkedIn is the most effective channel for driving leads. And yet many companies come to us who either haven’t tried it because it’s too expensive, or have tried it in a limited capacity and seen subpar results. In this episode, we share the framework we use with our clients to get LinkedIn Ads working every time Accompanying blogpost: Why Your B2B LinkedIn Ads for SaaS Aren’t Working and What to Do About It ==...

How to run an awareness strategy

One of the best ways to fill your pipeline with leads is to increase the likelihood that a prospect touches your brand weekly. And so, in today's episode, you'll learn how to create an awareness strategy that does just that.  Topics we cover in today's episode include: The content strategy we here at PBS use to generate qualified leads  A simple method for creating an effective content map  The important role frequency and recency play in brand awareness  By the end of the epis...

[Replay] The Long-term SEO Playbook for B2B SaaS Companies

B2B SaaS companies that prioritize SEO often reach a point where they aren't sure what to do next. In this episode, we share what they should do next and how to prioritize actions including a worked example with one of our clients Accompanying Blog Post: The Long-term SEO Playbook for B2B SaaS Companies === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search ...

[Replay] How to use Payback Periods to maximise your marketing investment

For many SaaS founders, payback periods are an afterthought. In our experience, plenty of them don't measure this key SaaS metric at all. And if they do it's often because they offer business intelligence or financial solutions to customers. So they're already tapped into these more nuanced financial metrics. Or it's because they have CFOs who referenced this figure in their financial reports. But payback period is a key metric that you shouldn't ignore no matter what kind of Sa...

How to avoid common pitfalls with A/B Testing

Sometimes, when A/B testing, marketers focus on the wrong metrics. They get too caught up in testing the little things like the color of a button only to forget the bigger pictures (revenue + the customer). So in this episode, we'll be breaking down some of these mistakes and how you can avoid them.  Topics we touch on in today's episode include: Why "let's a/b test it" is one of the most frustrating statements marketers say The proper way to conduct an a/b test Why you should f...

How to improve your SaaS landing page conversion rate

Accompanying Blog Post: Boring, unsexy, incredibly effective: How to improve your SaaS landing page conversion rate When we start working with SaaS companies, it’s not uncommon for us to find that their landing pages have extremely poor landing page conversion rates. Sometimes, these are as low as 0.5-1%. The downstream effect of this is that it’s significantly harder to get good-fit customers to connect with your messaging and, ultimately, convert. And a poor converting landing ...

Why "Un-gate Your Content" Is Bad Advice - Here’s What To Do Instead

Many LinkedIn influencers out there will tell you to un-gate your content. Why? So that more people can have access to it and, therefore, will likely be a customer down the line. But in our opinion, that's bad advice. So in this episode, we'll look at: Why gating your content is important The four-part process of creating a high-value lead magnet that converts How we've helped our clients generate millions in revenue from gated content  When you shouldn't gate your content  By...

SaaS Research: ‘Talk to customers’ is good advice but it’s not enough

Accompanying blog post: SaaS Research: ‘Talk to customers’ is good advice but it’s not enough The advice ‘talk to customers’ is good – but companies should focus on building a framework for understanding their customer that goes beyond simple interviewing and includes both qualitative and quantitative inputs from across their business. In this episode, we’ll look at: Why many SaaS companies are leaving money on the table by missing out on high quality signals How to avoid these ...

[Replay] How to position a SaaS when there are multiple customer profiles

-- Accompanying blogpost: How to position a SaaS when there are multiple customer profiles (Plus: template for choosing the right market) -- It’s extremely difficult to speak to everyone at once — but that’s what a lot of B2B SaaS companies try to do when they have multiple customer profiles. As a result, they create one-size-fits-all marketing that doesn’t speak to anyone.   Many companies have products with good traction that serve a well-defined industry and work for customers ...

The Lead Waterfall: How to measure your pace to goals (and what to do when it’s going wrong)

Accompanying blog post: The Lead Waterfall: How to measure your pace to goals (and what to do when it’s going wrong) Planning and forecasting are a big part of SaaS marketing, and it’s vital to look ahead and build a strategy that gives you the best chance of achieving your growth goals. If you have a good enough understanding of your analytics, and have a clear idea of where you want to be next year, you can even plan and predict how many leads you will need to acquire each day t...

Why we use the four I method of reporting on marketing

Accompanying blogpost: Why we use the four I method of reporting on marketing Marketing can be one of the biggest expenses for a B2B SaaS, and if you don’t measure it correctly, you could be pouring that budget down the drain. Good reporting on marketing is the key to making the best decisions for your business, and it’s near impossible to create an effective strategy without it. There are a number of approaches SaaS companies take when measuring their marketing, but many are flaw...

How to improve SEO performance without waiting for months

Accompanying blogpost: The Scorecard Approach: How to improve SEO performance without waiting for months How do you improve SEO performance when there are so many factors that can make a big difference to how effective it is? Because the answer to this question isn’t always clear, companies spend a lot of time, and huge amounts of money each year, to improve and optimize their SEO. Unfortunately, when a lot of companies get started on their SEO, they spend far too much time focusi...

[Replay] The 80/20 of SaaS demand gen

There's a lot of different things you *can* do to meet ambitious growth goals in SaaS. But here's the 20% of activities that get you 80% of your results === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search CEO Dev Basu @devbasu on Twitter for more updates and marketing insights.  If you enjoyed this episode, you can do the following things right away:  Cl...

How to make marketing investments when the economy is rough

Accompanying blogpost: Marketing in a recession: How to make marketing investments when the economy is rough Winter is coming. The economy is, sooner or later, going to go into recession. This will be rough for SaaS companies. Over the past few years valuations have been rising, investment rounds have been raised hastily and B2B SaaS companies have mostly been in hypergrowth mode. Many companies have already started making significant lay-offs and, to those who are invested in wat...

[Replay] How to Optimize SaaS Integration Pages to Drive Organic Traffic and Leads

Original blogpost: How to Optimize SaaS Integration Pages to Drive Organic Traffic and Leads Integrations are commonplace in B2B SaaS, but companies rarely put thought into how to leverage them through marketing. Find out how we capitalise on the significant SEO opportunities for integration pages to acquire keyword rankings and drive high quality organic traffic. === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth M...

How enterprise SaaS can pivot from a sales-led go-to-market to product-led GTM

Need help getting buy-in for your product-led plans? Schedule a Free SaaS Scale Session to find out how we can help you make the transition gracefully. Accompanying blogpost: How enterprise SaaS can pivot from a sales-led go-to-market to product-led GTM Enterprise level SaaS companies with sales-led go-to-market functions sometimes ask us how they can change their go-to-market strategy to be product-led. They’ve heard of enterprise businesses like Adobe and Heroku who moved from ...

How to make the migration to Google Analytics 4 a competitive advantage for your SaaS

Google Analytics is changing: universal analytics (UA) is going away and is being replaced by Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 represents a totally new way of thinking about analytics for everyone. It’s a scary change for many because from July 2023, their current analytics setup will no longer collect additional data and there is no easy way to migrate that existing setup to GA4. Bottom line: You won’t be able to make year-on-year comparisons if you don’t start collecting the data s...

[Replay] The MQL isn’t dead, you’re just using them wrong (and how to turn them into customers)

People say that the MQL is dead. Most B2B SaaS companies have a process for collecting and defining marketing qualified leads (MQLs). But we often talk with SaaS companies who haven’t got a process for turning those Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) into trials and demos. The result is that they see capturing MQLs as a low-value activity. They stop making efforts to nurture prospects who aren’t ready to buy. This can lead to a number of significant business challenges, including p...

[Replay] How to build B2B SaaS Buyer Personas That Actually Work

You’ve gone to the effort and expense to develop your SaaS buyer personas. You’ve created content for your ads and web pages that’s meant to appeal to them. But despite this effort, your conversion rates remain the same. You need to rethink your persona strategy! Accompanying blogpost: Our Process for Implementing B2B SaaS Buyer Personas That Actually Work === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thoma...

Why cost per lead increases (and how to decrease your CPL)

Accompanying blogpost: Why cost per lead increases (and how to decrease your CPL) When your ad campaigns are going well and you’ve established a good lead quality, the obvious next step is to look at how you can scale them. It should be simple, right? You’re already getting profitable leads at a good CPL (cost per lead), so all you need to do is increase your budget, and you’re all set. This isn’t quite what happens though. Instead, SaaS companies will commonly see CPL increasing...

The problem with content optimization tools

Content optimization tools like Clearscope, MarketMuse and Surfer really are helpful. But most teams are using them wrong. Here's how to do it better === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search CEO Dev Basu @devbasu on Twitter for more updates and marketing insights.  If you enjoyed this episode, you can do the following things right away:  Claim...

The 80/20 of SaaS demand gen

There's a lot of different things you *can* do to meet ambitious growth goals in SaaS. But here's the 20% of activities that get you 80% of your results === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search CEO Dev Basu @devbasu on Twitter for more updates and marketing insights.  If you enjoyed this episode, you can do the following things right away:  Cl...

Why we optimize lead quality before focusing on volume and cost

Accompanying blogpost: Avoiding growth at all costs: Why we optimize lead quality before focusing on volume and cost --- When B2B SaaS companies take investment – particularly VC – it’s hard for them to resist spending incremental amounts on PPC without a thought to the quality of the leads that they’re winning. In fact, most B2B SaaS companies focus scaling paid media completely backwards and the result is bad leads, high spend and almost nothing to show for it.  The approach th...

How to hire marketers in a competitive market

If you've tried to hire a marketer to work with you recently, you'll know it's incredibly hard. Here's some practical tips on how to make it easier === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or Powered By Search CEO Dev Basu @devbasu on Twitter for more updates and marketing insights.  If you enjoyed this episode, you can do the following things right away:  Claim y...

[Replay] The Anatomy of the Ideal SaaS Website: Best Practices from Our Authority Architecture Framework

SaaS landing page best practices are usually pretty superficial. In this episode, we look at how to apply the authority architecture – our systematic approach to SaaS website architecture and why it works Accompanying blogpost: The Anatomy of the Ideal SaaS Website: Best Practices from Our Authority Architecture Framework === SaaS Marketing Bites is produced by B2B SaaS marketing agency Powered by Search. It's hosted by Head of Growth Marc Thomas. You can follow @iammarcthomas or...